Ep. 06: Ashley Paggi's Artful Oops: Lessons from a Licensing Lapse

Summary

Podcast Summary: Art + Audience – Ep. 06: Ashley Paggi's Artful Oops: Lessons from a Licensing Lapse

Release Date: July 23, 2024

Introduction

In Episode 6 of the "Art + Audience" podcast, host Stacie Bloomfield welcomes her friend and accomplished surface pattern designer, Ashley Paggi. The episode, titled "Ashley Paggi's Artful Oops: Lessons from a Licensing Lapse," delves deep into Ashley's journey as an artist, her strategies for building a loyal audience, and the significant misstep she encountered in her licensing career. Through candid conversation, Ashley shares invaluable lessons on resilience, self-advocacy, and the importance of solid contractual agreements in the art licensing industry.

Getting to Know Ashley Paggi

The episode begins with Stacie expressing her admiration for Ashley's ability to build a business that authentically reflects her personal brand. Ashley introduces herself, detailing her transition from a stay-at-home mom and graphic designer to a successful surface pattern designer. She founded Ash Cascade Design in 2020, leveraging her art across various industries to create multiple revenue streams.

Ashley Paggi (02:42): “I started in 2020, pivoting from being a stay-at-home mom and a graphic designer into learning how to be a surface pattern designer. Leveraging my art into lots of different industries, creating multiple revenue streams...”

Living in Oregon, Ashley's designs are heavily influenced by her surroundings—the high desert inspires her gritty, muted floral patterns, distinguishing her work from more traditional, vibrant florals.

Building a Vibrant Art Business

Stacie highlights Ashley's rapid rise in the art licensing realm, attributing her success to the refined and authentic presentation of her brand. Ashley's background in branding and graphic design played a crucial role in effectively communicating her story and vision to her audience.

Stacie Bloomfield (05:48): “What you've done is you've married authenticity with a high level of refinement... and now you've launched a product-based brand where you're doing amazing art prints.”

Ashley recounts her initial success shortly after joining Stacie's "Leverage Your Art" program, securing contracts with notable clients like Cotton and Steel Fabrics within months. This swift progress underscores the effectiveness of her strategic brand presentation and community engagement.

Achieving Success and Securing Contracts

Ashley’s portfolio boasts collaborations with various companies, including geometry tea towels, cloth diapers, and even cleaning products like Ms. Myers Cleaning Products. These partnerships not only diversified her income but also established her presence in multiple markets.

Ashley Paggi (07:00): “I licensed my art on fabric for Cotton and Steel Fabrics... I worked with geometry tea towels, cloth diapers, and even Ms. Myers Cleaning Products.”

The Licensing Lapse: A Costly Mistake

Despite her successes, Ashley faced a significant challenge that tested her resilience. Initially, her collaboration with a fabric company was seamless, but over time, discrepancies arose between verbal agreements and actual deliverables. The absence of a detailed, legally binding contract led to misunderstandings and unapproved uses of her artwork.

Ashley Paggi (10:51): “I signed a contract. I didn't take maybe the advice that you might have given me to run my contract by a lawyer because I was like, oh, that's really expensive...”

As the partnership progressed, the company deviated from their initial promises. Ashley noticed her name was missing from products and website listings, despite verbal assurances. This oversight escalated when the company released products with vibrant colors starkly different from her signature ashy tones—a clear violation of her original agreement.

Ashley Paggi (12:31): “I was so excited. I did that for a little bit. And then I started just realizing how I'm not on the website... I saw products in colorways I never approved.”

Recovery and Lessons Learned

Confronted with these breaches, Ashley felt overwhelmed but chose not to abandon the partnership immediately. Instead, she decided to address the issues directly, opting to resolve the matter amicably without legal intervention. She leveraged her self-worth and knowledge gained over the years to communicate effectively with the company, ultimately securing retroactive payment and reinforcing the importance of clear, written contracts.

Ashley Paggi (14:00): “I had to take it on myself to explain them what licensing is and how it's really important to me that my art is portrayed correctly.”

This experience was pivotal, teaching Ashley the necessity of detailed contractual agreements and the foresight to anticipate potential future issues. She now ensures that all aspects of a collaboration, including credit placement and approval of future projects, are explicitly stated in her contracts.

Ashley Paggi (15:38): “My biggest lesson is that I really need to think of the contract, but think of what could possibly happen in the future... I will always say I need to approve future project products.”

Advice for Aspiring Artists

Ashley emphasizes the inevitability of making mistakes in the creative business journey and the importance of learning from them. She encourages artists to advocate for themselves, seek advice from a supportive community, and never underestimate the value of professional legal counsel when negotiating contracts.

Ashley Paggi (10:14): “You have to just make the mistakes, and then that's how you're going to learn...”

Stacie echoes this sentiment, highlighting the role of community and shared experiences in overcoming challenges. She advises artists to seek out resources, such as artist-specific attorneys and supportive peer networks, to navigate the complexities of art licensing.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a reflection on the significance of transparency and vulnerability in the artistic community. Ashley's willingness to share her licensing lapse serves as a powerful reminder that setbacks are part of the growth process. By advocating for herself and learning from her mistakes, Ashley not only salvaged her partnership but also fortified her business against future challenges.

Stacie Bloomfield (23:04): “So everybody go give Ash a follow... take that step forward, I promise you it's going to set you free and it's going to help you to be less afraid of the what if.”

Ashley’s story is a testament to the strength and resilience required to succeed in the art licensing industry. Her journey provides valuable lessons for artists aspiring to build sustainable and authentic businesses, underscoring the importance of preparation, community support, and unwavering self-belief.

Key Takeaways:

1. Authentic Branding: Building a personal brand that reflects your true self attracts a loyal and engaged audience.
2. Community Support: Engaging with fellow artists and seeking advice can provide critical support during challenging times.
3. Importance of Contracts: Detailed, legally binding agreements are essential to protect your work and ensure clear expectations.
4. Self-Advocacy: Standing up for your rights and valuing your work are crucial for long-term success.
5. Learning from Mistakes: Embracing and learning from errors is an integral part of personal and professional growth.

Notable Quotes:

• Ashley Paggi (10:51): “I didn't take maybe the advice that you might have given me to run my contract by a lawyer because I was like, oh, that's really expensive.”
• Ashley Paggi (15:38): “My biggest lesson is that I really need to think of the contract, but think of what could possibly happen in the future.”
• Stacie Bloomfield (21:01): “When you make mistakes in the future, if you can share openly with people, it's going to help someone else.”

For more insights and to follow Ashley's artistic journey, visit her Instagram @AshCascadeDesign and her website at ashcascade.com.

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Transcript

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Hey friend.

[Ashley Padgey]

Are you ready to pitch your artwork for art licensing? Then I have the thing for you. Presenting my brand new art licensing pitch Playbook. This free email course gives you everything you need to start pitching your artwork for licensing while leveraging your already awesome work into the next level of profitability and possibility. I'm going to teach you the five biggest mistakes that keep artists from crafting irresistible pitch emails, reaching out to their dream partners, pitching their work with confidence, gaining experience with collaborations, and building an art business that they love to run. So if you're ready to kickstart your art licensing business, visit artlicensingplaybook.com and I will send you my free 5 day email mini course. I can't wait for you to try it out.

I started to freak out because I'm like, this is a lot more use of my artwork than I had agreed upon. And I was like thinking, do I need to get a lawyer involved? I don't have the money to do that. This is just going to be ridiculous. And I almost just turned around and walked away and didn't approach them. So I freaked out a little bit and I didn't know what to do. And then I'm just like, no, I have learned and I know over the last couple of years, I know my value. I know that I can't be taken advantage of. I'm going to give them an opportunity to correct their mistakes without jumping down their throat and being like, I'm going to sue you or I'm going to go to a lawyer. So I had to take it on myself to explain them what licensing is and how it's really important to me that my art is portrayed correctly.

Wouldn't it be nice if your art business loved you back? Hi, I'm Stacy Bloomfield. After years of trial and error and late night doodling, I went from being a coffee shop manager to running a vibrant seven figure art business that I love. And now I'm on a mission to help more artists create an art business that they love too. So I invite you to find a cozy spot, pull out your favorite sketchbook and listen in. It's never too late to chase your creative dreams. Welcome to the Art plus Audience podcast.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Hi everybody. I'm so excited because I'm here with my dear friend and just amazing surface pattern designer and creative business owner, Ashley Padgy. Hi Ash.

[Ashley Padgey]

Hi Stacy.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

I'm thrilled to have you here today because what I have loved watching you do over the past few years is build a business that truly reflects you. Your personal brand story Comes through so strongly with everything that you create as an artist. And I just want a chance for everyone to get to know you a little bit. So can you tell everyone about Ashley Padre, who you are, where you live, what you do?

[Ashley Padgey]

Well, first of all, thank you for having me. This is really fun. We're sitting on a couch together, and it's just so good to see you in person. We don't get to do this.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

No, we don't.

[Ashley Padgey]

I'm very excited to be here. My name is Ashley Padgey and I own a business called Ash Cascade Design, which I started in 2020, basically when I was pivoting from being a stay at home mom and a graphic designer into learning how to be a surface pattern designer. Leveraging my art into lots of different industries, creating multiple revenue streams, all of those things. So in the last four years, I have just the best time learning what my strengths are and implementing things that I learned from really talented teachers and turning it into a really actual viable business that can help support my family. I have two kids right now. They are nine and six and a dog. And I live in Oregon. And a lot of my design work and the things that I like to put out into the world really directly reflect the place that I live. My florals. I do a lot of floral patterns and artwork, and I like to say they're kind of like, gritty a little bit. There's always. If there's florals, there's like, thorns or there's kind of more muted, ashy colors, because that's what I see in the high desert where I live. It's a little different than some big, beautiful, like, peony flowers. They're smaller and a little bit more hearty.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Hearty.

[Ashley Padgey]

Hearty.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

I like it. Hearty. Hearty. Art party.

[Ashley Padgey]

Arty. Yeah.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Hearty. Arty.

[Ashley Padgey]

Oh, my gosh.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

No, it's the good stuff. So here's the thing. Like, what you do so wonderfully is who you are as a person somehow comes through not only the art you create, but how you present it to the world. And I think the way you've done that is so specific. And it's helped you to build an art audience full of people who, like, you know, they adore you. The people who follow you, the people who are on your email list, they support you. They know your story because of how you have shared it so specifically. And because of that, you have done what so many creatives want to do is to build a small, engaged audience of people who are just raving fans. And I Think that people would love to know a little bit more about how you've done that. So do you mind sharing a little bit?

[Ashley Padgey]

Yeah, sure. I mean, I think I almost didn't necessarily intentionally do that on purpose. I think when I started my business, I just thought, how can I get myself in front of my audience and who I'm trying to attract? And for me, with the background in branding and graphic design and working for bigger corporations, I knew that I had to tell my story and really let people into my world. And so I do that through brand photography. I do that through sharing. I don't. I try not to share too much. Like extremely personal things. If you notice, I mostly would show my kids from the back or those kinds of things. So I show my story, but I do it really intentionally. And I want people to know where I'm at in the world, where I'm at in my stage of life, what kind of art I make. I bring people in when I'm experimenting. It's not perfect when I show people, but yeah, I guess I just. I want to share my story in a way that's relatable. And I really love connecting with other artists. So it doesn't feel like a short. It's just like, let's chat.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

What you've done is you've married authenticity with a high level of refinement, which in turn. Oh, well, it's true. Well, which in turn takes you from someone who you started your surface pattern Design career in 2020. You replaced your income as a full time graphic designer with your surface pattern design career through art licensing. And now you've launched a product based brand where you're doing amazing art prints. I have one of them in my son's room. And the thing is, you know, 2020 wasn't that long ago. And there are a lot of people who started in 2020 because of their Covid pivots. Right. So, full disclosure. Ash was one of my students whenever I first launched Leverage youe Art. She was in the class of 2020, right?

[Ashley Padgey]

Oh, yep. When we're doing it from your bedroom.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Doing it from my bedroom. Much like this interview. We're doing it together. But what I noticed is you kind of rose very quickly in terms of like, your art was great. There are a lot of amazing artists out there. And the way you have presented yourself online and in your newsletter and connected with people is a huge reason why, like when I say refinement, it's a huge reason why I think that you were able to leap into art licensing. I won't say it's effortless, and we're going to talk about that in a second, but in a way where you have actually landed some really big contracts. So who are some of the people you've worked with?

[Ashley Padgey]

Well, I licensed my art on fabric for cotton and steel fabrics. That was probably, I mean, only a month or two after I took leverage is when I got that contract, which is really exciting. And it was very unexpected, I guess, for me. I have worked with geometry tea towels. I've worked with kind of cloth diapers. I've worked with some NDA clients that I can't share about. But most recently, I worked with Ms. Myers Cleaning Products to do a small project that hopefully could lead to some. Something bigger, a few more, but I. I'm on the spot.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Yeah, well, I. I want to bring that up because, like, what you've done is what so many people who are listening today want to do. They want to still be able to be with their children, work from home, replace maybe the income from their career that they didn't maybe love their career. It didn't serve them anymore with their art. And so you have done that. But we know you. And I know because I know you know your story. Like, that growth and getting from, like, the beginning, the dream to actually having, like, the money in hand from your art through art licensing or product, like, it's a journey. And it. Even if you're. You land a contract a few months after taking a program, money doesn't necessarily come in for a while with art licensing. So I guess I want to go back to the beginning with you, because what we do here in this podcast is we want to not only talk about ways to build an audience, to grow it as an art business owner, but we don't want to shy away from, like, those growing pains, those mistakes and fumbles that we all make. Because on the outside, looking at your brand, I mean, you've got the brand photography, the beautiful artwork, the licensing, collaborations. But there have been some things that have happened along the way that were probably discouraging and stopped you and your.

[Ashley Padgey]

Nothing.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Nothing.

[Ashley Padgey]

It's been perfect. It's perfect.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

I've never made a mistake, never made a mistake ever.

[Ashley Padgey]

And I never will. It's. It's amazing.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

All right, podcast is over.

[Ashley Padgey]

You might not know that I'm kidding, though.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Oh, she's kidding. I promise. But I think what's really important for people to hear is whenever we look at your brand on the outside, it's aspirational and it's what so many people want to have built. Whenever you're building that brand from the beginning, there are mistakes that people just don't know happen. Miscalculations, deals that fall through, so many things that would in so many ways derail people in their career path. In fact, when I talk to most aspiring artists, the what if. The what if this bad thing happens? The biggest scary thing like that is the focus and the fixation. And instead of making motion towards their goal, they're stopped in their tracks because of that scary boogeyman. So what I want to do today is kind of break it down and ask you to share vulnerably in detail, if you don't mind one of those mishaps or things, those barriers that you came upon early in your career and how that made you feel, how you recovered from it to build the business that you have today.

[Ashley Padgey]

Yeah, yeah. And when thinking about this, I tried to think of something that might hold people back. Like, they want to know everything about before they dive in. But really, you learn from your mistakes. Obviously people say that all the time, but it really is true. You have to just make the mistakes, and then that's how you're going to learn. Because people can tell you how to do things all day long, but until you really understand the concept and you really understand the consequence of it, then you're not going to learn. So it's okay to make mistakes. It's okay to learn even when you're working with a client, because it's going to happen.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

So. And if you're not making mistakes, I bet you're not growing because you're not even, like, in the game. Like, you're growing a lot. That's. That's. That's how I've grown my business so much, is because sometimes the amount of mistakes I've made, it is jarring.

[Ashley Padgey]

And that's what I love about you, is you share that. So open. I've learned a lot from your mistakes, too.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Well, you know, we. You learn from our mistakes that you can save time, and that's why we're here. So, Ash, let's. Let's get into it. The nitty gritty.

[Ashley Padgey]

So one example that I thought of right away when you asked, like, what is the mistake that you made in your business? I won't go into specifics because that would be not fun. But, I mean, I'll talk about specifics.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

But you just won't name people. Yeah.

[Ashley Padgey]

So I was super excited. I licensed with my fabric company, and it's going great. And Then I was like, I want to reach out to different industries. I landed what I consider to be a dream client in an industry that I feel passionate about and love and all of that. And I, you know, it was going so well. The art director had big hopes and dreams, and they were like, we're going to collaborate for years. And it was wonderful. And I was like, yes, please, this is so exciting. And it was. At first, it was great. You know, we released a whole season worth of products and they were right as what I expected. And I signed a contract. I didn't take maybe the advice that you might have given me to run my contract by a lawyer because I was like, oh, that's really expensive. I'm just starting out, you know, I'm just going to go, it looks good to me. And I don't know anything about legal jargon, so it looked good to me, but that didn't mean anything, kind of. And for a while, it was really great. For a year or two, it was just pretty seamless, easy. I gave them artwork and then they put it on their products and bam, bam, bam. But then as the relationship went on, I started realizing, like, huh, there's kind of some things that they're not following through on on their bargain, which is things that really were brought up verbally to me. They weren't necessarily. Well, I didn't even realize that they weren't in the contract at the time. So things like, oh, we're going to promote you as one of our promoted artists on our website. We're going to put your name on all the products that we made of yours. And so I. I was so new. I was just like, oh, I got the thing in my hand. I'm so excited. I didn't even notice at first that my name wasn't on the product. Right.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Yeah.

[Ashley Padgey]

I was just like, yes, this is so cool. And so I did that for a little bit. And then I started just realizing how I'm not on the website. Oh, my products on the website, and my name is not on the product and are on the listing. And. And so I would bring these up slowly and they'd be like, oh, yeah, we're going to fix that there. And they just kind of just kept pushing me off. And I was like, okay. And I didn't really think I had any, you know, clout to say, like, no, this is part of our agreement. And I didn't even look back at the contract at the time to see, like, is this something that I can bring up legally? And so once I finally did, I looked at the contract and I was like, oh, none of this stuff is in the contract. They didn't say in the contract that they were going to put my name on the product. They didn't say on the contract that they were going to put my name on the listing on the website. It was all just verbal from the art director. That was kind of okay, and I brought it up and I kind of let that slide. But then come a year later, I'm looking on Instagram and I see the company pop up and there are brand new products that were not even in existence when I licensed with them in completely different color ways that I had never approved. And they were colors that I would probably never use. Like I told you, I use ashy kind of muted colors, and these were like vibrant, bright magentas and things like that that I just never would use. And so that's when I was like, wait a second, this is not what I got paid for. Because I was paid flat fee for this project based on how many designs I gave them. And so I started to freak out because I'm like, this is a lot more use of my artwork than I had agreed upon. And so I freaked out for a little bit, and then I wrote an email and I was like thinking, do I need to get a lawyer involved? I don't have the money to do that. This is just going to be ridiculous. And I almost just turned around and walked away and didn't approach them. So I freaked out a little bit and I didn't know what to do. And then I'm just like, no, I have learned. And I know over the last couple of years, I know my value. I know that I can't be taken advantage of. I'm going to give them an opportunity to correct their mistakes without jumping down their throat and being like, I'm going to sue you or I'm going to go to a lawyer. So I just. I wrote them an email and it was kind of a back and forth email. They didn't really understand why they didn't. They pretended, or maybe they really didn't know that they had overstepped. And so I had to explain them. And I had to take it on myself to explain them what licensing is and how it's really important to me that my art is portrayed in the world correctly. And I took time to really explain it to them. And then it ended up that they retroactively paid me for that. I don't know that we'll work together again. But maybe, probably not, but they did. I was really proud in the end that I stood up for myself and I said, listen, these are the reasons why I need a payment on the end. I'm not looking to go in the legal route. We can resolve this, hopefully. And it worked out. And so I learned my lesson. My biggest lesson is that I really need to think of the contract, but think of what could possibly happen in the future. So I will always say I need to approve future project products. This contract can be renegotiated. If you want to put my artwork on new products, new colorways need to be approved. All those kinds of things I have in my head now that I will never sign a contract without knowing. So how would I have known that until I made that mistake?

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Well, the thing is, you. Your story, which honestly had such a good, happy ending, because I think it doesn't always. It doesn't always. But like your story, there's a couple things that you said. The scarcity of money in the beginning of, like, I don't want to spend money on a lawyer because of X, Y and Z meant that you went into an agreement where, you know, you're like, it's going to be fine because they gave me the verbal agreement or, you know, in this case, email agreement. We're so trusting because I think that whenever you're a person who has a certain set of values and you're a person, not a business necessarily like the company that you're working with, like, they're a company, you're a person. And we're judging things by our own personal values, like, oh, well, if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do something. We don't need contracts in place to follow through most of the time with what we say we're going to do. But a business is totally different than that.

[Ashley Padgey]

Well, and I will say it might not have even been a value issue in their case, because the current art director that I started with ended up leaving halfway through the project. And so the new team just kind of steamrolled through, just fell through the cracks. And so it might not have even. It was a complete. Could have been a complete misunderstanding. I'm not really sure, and I'm not going to judge it.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Oh, no.

[Ashley Padgey]

But I'm just saying, like, you just never foresee people could just leave the company, and then you don't have that verification.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

And without that legal agreement in place that specifies everything from my name needs to be on the listing to I'm promoted as an artist this many times on social media to like, all future colorways and other products have to be approved by me. And having that in writing in the contract, like, who would think to do that at the very beginning of their journey? And you're like so many people who you trust that what said is going to happen and then things happen. Like you said, jobs change, things fell through the cracks and companies like, I own my own product based business and things move fast. Things move so, so fast. So it's not always like someone's trying to like take advantage of you. But as an artist, an individual artist, if you don't advocate for yourself just like you did, you know, you may never get that financial payoff, that retroactive royalty, but you know, and realistically, like.

[Ashley Padgey]

That'S great that I did get paid in the end. But even if I hadn't, even if it had gone south even farther, my business isn't going to explode. I learned my lesson. I could have just moved on. And so even though that happened, I still was like, okay, this isn't going to end anything for me. Let's just go, let's put this behind us.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

And what I want to say in response to, like, what you just shared is so many artists, your story stops people in their tracks because they're like, oh, no, this is a reason why maybe art licensing isn't for me because, because like, if this happens, what if I'm not brave enough to advocate for myself? Because, you know, it is difficult to email a company even if you have a good relationship with them and point out like, what you perceive as like a mistake. Essentially it is a mistake, but sometimes it's hard to explain, like, your point of view, especially if, like, what we know is we understand art licensing, but sometimes the people who want to collaborate with us as artists, they don't understand, like, what our expectations are. And so for so many newbies, like, what if this happens? What if I get taken advantage of or my artwork gets used without my permission? And I met people who, when this very thing happens, they actually stop. They're like, okay, this is a sign from the universe that art licensing is not for me and is not going to work. Because look at this bad, scary thing that happened. And what you did is you did not let fear stand in your way. Were you a little bit nervous in that email?

[Ashley Padgey]

Oh, yeah. Oh, totally shaky. I'm nervous with everything that new that I do. Of course, yes, but.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

But you sent the email anyways. You did not go in accusatory just like you Said you went in having a two way conversation. Right. You wanted that.

[Ashley Padgey]

Tried to, yeah. And one thing I also will say is that I had, I communicated with my art contemporaries, other people that I know that are in this business. I, I ran it by them first and I got their opinion. And so that's why community is such an important thing as well. But it was like I called up a couple of my friends and I'm like, okay, this is what's happening. This is not right. Right. I just need verification. And they're like, go get them. I know you, like, you can do it.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

So because you build a community and relationships, another fear people have is like, I won't have anyone to talk to if this happens. I won't have a leg to stand on because, like, like I don't have an attorney. Well, in this case, you had a community of other artists who've been before you and were able to give you advice and help you get what we perceive as the best outcome, which is exactly what happened.

[Ashley Padgey]

Right.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

So you advocated for yourself, you sought advice from people who were already walking down that path. What did that change for you going into future licensing opportunities?

[Ashley Padgey]

I would say I just feel even a little bit more confident when I go into a contract negotiation. I think, oh, these are the extra things I need to ask for. These are the extra things. And I feel like I, I'm coming from a place of experience, experience understanding that like, this is what could happen. And so I need to do it this way instead of just going in blindly and not, you know, not standing up for what I know as an artist, I need. And it's not being extra, it's not being picky, as you know, or finicky as an artist.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Well, I think what I want to say as we kind of conclude this talk together, which thank you so much for sharing so vulnerably and openly, because in truth, who wants to admit online that they've made a big, messy mistake? You know, like, not a ton of people. So thank you for your.

[Ashley Padgey]

But if we don't admit it, then we're not learning and no one can learn from my mistakes.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

And that's what we want to do, is we want to help our next generation of surface pattern designers and creative business owners learn from what we've done so that you can avoid the same mistakes that we've made. I'm just thrilled with like the outcome that you had in the end. The retroactive royalty is one of my favorite things. I've had it too, and I've had to engage an attorney to help me whenever there have been mistakes like this. So I'm so proud of what you did, and I love seeing, like, what you have built since then, and you're helping so many people with their own businesses now. So thank you. Thank you for being you. Yeah.

[Ashley Padgey]

Thank you.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

So, for you who are listening, I guess what I want to encourage you to do is first of all, know that you're going to make mistakes in your creative business journey. It's inevitable. It doesn't matter how many classes you take. It doesn't matter, you know, how prepared and how many spreadsheets you have. You're going to have things that happen in the moment that you cannot predict. And that's why you can't let the fear of the what if stop you from pursuing what you're called to do, which is to be a creative entrepreneur. And so the next time one of you have, like, a scary contract in front of you, which you will have, just know that your community is going to be your first resource to just run things past people and see, like, does this look right? The second thing is there are attorneys out there who I think most people don't even realize. There are attorneys for artists out there who will review contracts, and it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg. And the last thing I want to say is, like, when you make mistakes in the future, if you can share openly with people, it's going to help someone else. It's going to help someone else to avoid the same pitfall. So that's why we're here, is to help people grow their audiences, but also grow as creative business owners and confidence and ability. So, Ash, thank you so much.

[Ashley Padgey]

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I've learned a lot from you during this because you always share your stuff. So I've also learned to share not just my mistakes, but all of my knowledge.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

And that's what we do.

[Ashley Padgey]

Yeah.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Where can people kind of find you online to kind of follow your story and learn more about what you do?

[Ashley Padgey]

The best place that's most interactive is probably just Instagram. Ash Cascade Design. I'm there. My website is ash cascade.com awesome.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

So everybody go give Ash a follow. And I would love for you to share with me on Instagram maybe the biggest mistake you've made. I know that requires vulnerability, but if you can take that step forward, I promise you it's going to set you free and it's going to help you to be less afraid of the what if. And it's going to encourage other people to see, like someone I follow and admire. They have walked through that thing that used to terrify me and they're better for it. So please go share in our comments. And thank you so much for being here. And thank you, Ash.

[Ashley Padgey]

All right. Thank you. I hope someone found it valuable. Bye. Bye.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Hey, could you do me a favor?

[Ashley Padgey]

Could you subscribe to this podcast and then share it with one of your best art friends? I'd really appreciate it. And then head on over to Instagram and follow me at the leverageyourart account and you can keep up with all of our future episodes. Thank you so much for your support. It means everything to have you here, listening and learning.

Bye.